Another Colt in No. 88 jersey is more injustice for Mackey

"At first, he thought it was a replay of him," Sylvia Mackey said last week, recalling how she, her Hall of Fame husband and one of their three daughters had watched the AFC championship game in their Baltimore home. "We didn't say anything, but he had that quizzical look on his face.

"Then he said to me, 'Who's that wearing my number?' " she continued, relaying the question asked by embittered fans with long memories ever since the Indianapolis Colts had come to town for their playoff game against the Ravens.

Soon, the camera zoomed in on No. 88 on the bench as he sat without his helmet - Marvin Harrison, the Colts' great wide receiver.

John "got all upset and agitated," Sylvia Mackey recounted, "and he said, 'That's not me.' Then he looked closer and said, 'That's not my name on the back of my jersey.' "

The sight of Harrison wearing Mackey's number is one of many slaps in the face old Colts fans have felt in the past few weeks as their nightmare - their colors and logo representing another city in the Super Bowl - became reality.

Now, we know it stung Mackey, too, even if only for as long as his brain can digest it right now. And that knowledge will surely make it sting the fans even more. At 65, Mackey struggles with dementia.

He has held onto his once-razor-sharp faculties as much as he has largely because of his wife's tireless efforts to keep him active - they will appear in Miami at various functions this week - and her fight for money to pay his medical bills.

In fact, she has helped keep the association with No. 88 alive; her plea two years ago to then-commissioner Paul Tagliabue eventually led to a significant upgrade in benefits for players with post-career dementia. It's called the Number 88 Plan, and it provides for up to $88,000 a year for institutional care.

But a new generation of fans, particularly in Indy, recognizes No. 88 of the Colts - through no fault of his own - as Harrison. "The only saving grace," Sylvia Mackey said, "is that Marvin went to Syracuse, just like John."

At this time of year, replays of Mackey's 75-yard touchdown play in the Super Bowl in January 1971 get constant rotation, so it wasn't a stretch for Mackey to expect to see himself on TV.

But his confusion was hard to watch, his wife said: "My daughter and I both looked at each other and said, 'Ohhhhhh.' We were heartbroken."

Thus, one more injustice was layered on top of the others Mackey experienced - as a player, union activist, annual Hall of Fame snub and now the sufferer of a mind-robbing disease.

Former Colts defensive back Bruce Laird - who helped fight to get the Mackeys financial help as part of the Colts alumni group and the NFL Players Association Retired Players chapter - said he wasn't sure if Mackey's union battles are what kept him out of Canton until his final year of eligibility. But Laird doesn't dismiss it: "I'm sure that because John was articulate, very smart, and a black man, back in the day - I'm sure that [ticked] people off."

How much that and other factors also played into his Colts number not being retired, even before the team left town, may never be fully known. It is not something he seems bitter about, possibly because it would be hard to figure at whom to be bitter. Mackey's wife said that he had never taken notice of it before the AFC title game.

According to the Colts' 2006 media guide, Harrison is the ninth Indianapolis Colt to wear 88. In fairness to them, though - and to indicate how his departure from here before the 1972 season was on such bad terms - four Baltimore Colts wore it after him; it was handed out that very season, in fact.

Meanwhile, the Baltimore Colts retired the numbers of all their core Hall of Famers except Mackey, while the Indianapolis Colts have not retired any numbers at all. With teams leaning toward honoring their immortals in ways that don't deplete the jersey number supply, the Colts have a ring of honor - only of Indianapolis-era figures. Mackey is in the Ravens' ring of honor along with the other Colts Hall of Famers, but the team does not retire those numbers.

Over 35 years, there were all sorts of cracks Mackey and his revered number could slip through, and he seemed to have slipped through all of them.

It's not impossible to envision the Colts someday retiring Harrison's and Peyton Manning's numbers, especially if they win the Super Bowl. That would be awkward, to say the least. But Sylvia Mackey has an idea for that.

"There might be a way to do a split. I wouldn't object to that," she said on behalf of her husband. "I'd say to Marvin, 'Tell them you want to split the number, half for you, half for John.' "